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Frank Luntz: The NRA’s not listening to the public

“The public wants guns out of the schools, not in the schools,” Luntz said on CBS’s “This Morning.” “And they are not asking for a security official or someone else. I don’t think the NRA is listening. I don’t think they understand most Americans would protect the Second Amendment rights and yet agree with the idea that not every human being should own a gun, not every gun should be available at anytime, anywhere, for anyone. At gun shows, you should not be able to buy something there without any kind of check whatsoever.”

He added, “What they are looking for is a common sense approach saying those who law-abiding should continue to have the right to own a weapon, but don’t believe the right should be extended to everyone at every time for every type of weapon.”

Blowback

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In a January 9, 2007, interview on Fresh Air with Terry Gross, Luntz redefined the term “Orwellian” in a positive sense, saying that if one reads Orwell’s Essay On Language (presumably referring to Politics and the English Language), “To be ‘Orwellian’ is to speak with absolute clarity, to be succinct, to explain what the event is, to talk about what triggers something happening… and to do so without any pejorative whatsoever.”

Frank was one of the pollsters telling us we had the election in the bag. The man has been known to make up polls for YEARS. It’s well past time we stopped listening to him. His sloppy sideshow act is not how the republican party gets competitive.

Even if he is right in this case… I really don’t know… I do not trust him. Find someone professional.

Yes, they also want a cure to AIDS, an end to hunger, the disappearance of lethal weapons, a daily talk show hosted by a cross between Beyonce and a Unicorn, and sharks that shoot laser beams out of their eyes.

I don’t think they understand most Americans would protect the Second Amendment rights and yet agree with the idea that not every human being should own a gun, not every gun should be available at anytime, anywhere, for anyone.

Strawman – that situation doesn’t exist even now. If you are a convicted felon – you can’t own a gun. Convicted of spouse abuse? Can’t own a gun. There’s any number of reasons why a person can’t own a gun.

So if Lutz wants a society where not everyone owns guns – or can own a gun – mission accomplished he’s living in one now.

What we have now isn’t working. Historically, from Athens to early America, you had to be a property owner to vote. Growing up, I was taught that was the case do to racism or some such thing. But now I can see the real reason. Property owners were the only ones with skin in the game, much more likely to pay attention to what’s going on, and evaluate politicians and policies on a rational basis. The average person is an emotion driven creature, paying no attention to ‘hard news’, ignorant of history and basic economics, and willing to vote for whoever promises them the biggest pile of goodies or demonizes the other guy the best.

So I say again what many of us are thinking, our system of government no longer works.

We’re not going back to the way it was, not without an armed revolution. When we do reset, maybe we can try the Starship Trooper model (the book, not the awful, awful movie). Hell, I’d be willing to try the Thunderdome thing at this point.